Herb Walks with Lanny Kaufer and the Ojai Valley Green Coalition (OVGC) will present renowned fire ecology expert and author Richard Halsey on Saturday, February 17, for a timely workshop on how to create resilient gardens and homes in Southern California as residents go forward in the post-Thomas Fire era. The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a morning walk to identify and discuss fire-wise native plants and continue at 1:00 p.m. after a lunch break with a slideshow talk based on Richard’s book and his research into the chaparral ecosystem and fire ecology.

Has that ancient and odd-looking scanner been a dust repository in a corner of your garage for too long? What about that box of batteries that you have rightly not thrown in the trash, but have been neglecting to take to the County for proper disposal?

Next month you’ll have a chance to safely and properly recycle these and other household items at the Coalition’s annual e-waste recycling event, which this year will take place at the Nordhoff High School parking lot on January 20 beginning at 9:00 a.m. and concluding at 1:00 p.m.

Judge Rules against County, for Clean Air for Ojai

On November 14 a Superior Court Judge ruled that Ventura County ignored California environmental law regarding air pollution when its commercial and industrial permit division and Board of Supervisors approved a local oil company plan to drill three new oil wells in Upper Ojai.

The Coalition will join with Greater Goods and California Solar Electric to launch the first of a monthly gathering series called “Little Footprints.” Beginning at 1pm on Sunday, October 29, the focus will be on ways in which we as a community can more gently impact our environment. Hosting the event will be Greater Goods, the collaborative non-profit space located at 145 W. El Roblar in Meiners Oaks.

Greater Goods founder Vaughn Montgomery plans a smorgasbord of attractions, including the showing of a documentary from surfer and musician Jack Johnson called “The Smog of the Sea”, about the microbead plastics polluting our oceans. The film will be followed by a discussion with scientist Marcus Eriksen & activist Anna Cummins, the husband/wife duo who founded 5 Gyres, one of the most impactful organizations in the world in the effort to clean up our oceans &, simultanesously, ourselves. Montgomery also plans a collaborative “group craft” artwork using plastics gathered at a beach & river clean-up over the weekend. A workshop on how to make some of your own household items will be offered, too.

“We’ll bring bags of trash to Greater Goods on Sunday and string together a big fish to hang in the window for the month,” Montgomery said. “This month we’re going to focus on working to get rid of single-use products. We want to partner with different organizations to give people a sense of what they’re doing in the community.”

Montgomery opened Greater Goods in March of this year with his sister Laurie Cornell. They’ve hosted talks, documentary showings, workshops, music shows, poetry readings, and a wide array of other offerings.

“We’re trying to keep a dynamic sense of programming, as well as a little more of a retail presence, helping artists sell their work,” Montgomery said. “We want it to be interactive and multi-use, like a cafe with poetry and theater and music. We think our culture is pretty fractured and we need a ritual place for gathering where people can talk about what is under-acknowledged, alternative, or even taboo in our world today.“

Montgomery said he knows that eliminating plastics from the ocean could take thousands of years, but -- inspired in part by Jack Johnson’s efforts -- he’s determined to do what he can to make a start, in collaboration with other groups in Ojai.

“I thought to start, let’s have a potluck, and let’s make it plastic-free, with as much local and organic food as possible,” he said. “Maybe we can launch a tradition of plastics-free potlucks and that will just ripple out into the community and start something here in Ojai.”

Little Footprints will continue to be held on the last Sunday of each month at Greater Goods, featuring a variety of new environmental ideas and proposals, presented by local groups and leaders.

Join us for Water Wise Landscaping Workshop on Saturday, September 30

Join us for a Water Wise Landscaping Workshop on Saturday, September 30, Yes that is this Saturday!

Would you like to use less water and still have an attractive landscape around your home? Would you like to lower your water bill? Plan to attend a free water wise landscaping workshop hosted by the Ventura River Water District, Casitas Municipal Water District and the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.

After you have planted climate appropriate plants, installed a weather intelligent irrigation controller, and tuned up the irrigation system around your trees, there is still more to do to optimize the use of water for the health of the plants and minimize water use. Come and hear from the experts how it is done!

What: We will provide an update on our water supplies, tips on ways to improve our drought resiliency by capturing rainwater, reusing greywater, and using climate appropriate plants and efficient irrigation.

Attendance is free with a chance to win prizes, including: Water Wise Site Evaluation, Irrigation Audit, Water Wise plants and books. Class size is limited. Pleace call Ventura River Water District to reserve your seat at 646-3403

Thanks to the Ventura River Water District and Casitas Municipal Water District for sponsoring this event!

Bert Rapp is the General Manager of the Ventura River Water District (http://venturariverwd.com/). Bert is following closely and reporting on the local water situation, along with working with the Upper Ventura Groundwater Management Agency to develop a Groundwater Management Plan. Bert is encouraging all of his customers to use water wisely and not waste it.

Cinnamon McIntosh has worked for water districts in the field of water conservation for 16 years. As a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor and Native Plant expert, she has assessed landscape water use efficiency at thousands of sites (homes, business, parks, schools, etc.) up and down California. Currently serving Casitas Municipal Water District, Cinnamon says she sees the same irrigation problems again and again and wants to help homeowners identify ways to be more efficient.

Laura Maher is a certified Water Harvesting Practitioner and a Greywater Action installer/educator. Simple, low-impact solutions are her specialty. As a Water Resource Field Specialist for Sierra Watershed Progressive and co-founder of Eco Action Co-op, she works together with other professionals to support watershed and ecological restoration.

Dave Williams has been in the irrigation industry for over a decade. He has helped with large scale commercial water management projects and has attained a Landscape Irrigation Auditors license with the Irrigation Association. He now is the project estimator for Scarlett's Landscape, Inc. in Ventura.

Renee Roth headed up the Save Our Water Ojai! campaign of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition to help educate residents about Watershed Wise landscaping. With a background in environmental horticulture and landscape design, she promotes sustainable landscape designs to save water, capture rainwater and support healthy soils with the use of climate appropriate plants. She is a certified Irrigation Auditor with the EPA WaterSense program.

SKYGLOW Project Presentation Sept. 15

On Friday, September 15, 7 to 9 p.m., join the Coalition for a SKYGLOW Project screening and book signing.

SKYGLOW explores the history and mythology of celestial observation, the proliferation of electrical outdoor lighting that spurred the rise of "skyglow” and the Dark Sky Movement that's fighting to reclaim the night skies.

Held in the beautiful Thacher School Milligan Center for the Performing Arts at 5025 Thacher Rd., the suggested donation is $10 (students are free). There will be a drawing at the end of the program - 2 bottles of wine and 4 tasting tickets - complements of Topa Mountain Winery. Another Dark Sky Friendly Ojai Valley business - THANK YOU!

Thank you to our host/partner The Thacher School and the financial support of the City of Ojai and Rotary Club of Ojai for making this important educational event possible.

ReSource Center Available to Rent

September 27, 2017

Caryn Bosson, a former Board member of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, the founder of the Ojai Youth Foundation, and a former executive at TreePeople in Los Angeles, has volunteered to help the Coalition’s leadership and Board formulate a new strategy for sustainability.

Bosson has lived in Ojai since the l990’s, and has been a monthly subscriber to the Coalition from the start. She thinks if we want to see a town that values and preserves its natural beauty and small-town democracy we need to have an organization working not only for sustainability in Ojai, but which can sustain itself.

“I really can’t imagine Ojai without the Green Coalition,” she said. “And I would really like to see it thrive, because I think Ojai needs this kind of organization in order to become the kind of community we want to see in our future.”

After talking with the Coalition Board of Directors, as well as with newly named executive director Tim Nafziger, Bosson signed a volunteer letter of agreement, offering to help guide the Coalition’s efforts to translate their new vision into reality.

With a great deal of revitalizing change in both the leadership and the Board in the last year, the Coalition has decided to hold a retreat at the end of September. From the retreat will come an agreed upon set of goals. Bosson -- now a Senior Faculty member at Cal Lutheran - part of their Center for Non-Profit Leadership -- said will help the Board work with those goals to find practical ways to connect to its membership and the community, and measure the work we do for a sustainable life in Ojai.

September 26, 2017

Caryn Bosson, a former Board member of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, the founder of the Ojai Youth Foundation, and a former executive at TreePeople in Los Angeles, has volunteered to help the Coalition’s leadership and Board formulate a new strategy for sustainability.

Bosson has lived in Ojai since the l990’s, and has been a monthly subscriber to the Coalition from the start. She thinks if we want to see a town that values and preserves its natural beauty and small-town democracy we need to have an organization working not only for sustainability in Ojai, but which can sustain itself.

“I really can’t imagine Ojai without the Green Coalition,” she said. “And I would really like to see it thrive, because I think Ojai needs this kind of organization in order to become the kind of community we want to see in our future.”

After talking with the Coalition Board of Directors, as well as with newly named executive director Tim Nafziger, Bosson signed a volunteer letter of agreement, offering to help guide the Coalition’s efforts to translate their new vision into reality.

With a great deal of revitalizing change in both the leadership and the Board in the last year, the Coalition has decided to hold a retreat at the end of September. From the retreat will come an agreed upon set of goals. Bosson -- now a Senior Faculty member at Cal Lutheran - part of their Center for Non-Profit Leadership -- said will help the Board find practical ways to connect to its membership and the community, and set goals to guide and measure the work we do for a sustainable life in Ojai.

August 30, 2017

The Kusa Seed Research Foundation is Ojai's own “heirloom seed” organization, keeping alive the ancient human valuation of the preciousness of untrammeled seeds. They are looking for help hosting these seeds.

Founded in Ojai in 1980, the Kusa Seed Society has built-up a deep collection of bio-diverse, highly nutritious edible seedcrops — endangered staple-food seed crops that can re-green the earth and deliver healing and re-greening energies to mind and body alike.

Seeds are nutritious packages of peace and abundance, their germination power can light the pathway to human balance and well-being.

To preserve its collection, the Kusa Seed organization stores the seeds in household-type chest freezers, each one about the size of a small common refrigerator. Each seed-storage freezer is like a botanic treasure chest.

Recently, an opportunity has arisen to help maintain these sleeping seeds on their journey.

A “Seed Guardian” is needed, someone who will volunteer a space to keep the seeds safe until the magic of soil, moisture, and sun can re-awaken them. This “Seed Guardian” opening can be filled by any member of the community willing to host one of Kusa Seed's botanic “treasure chests.” What's needed is a dry, secure, indoor space with electrical service available. A quiet corner in a church, school, office, shop, garage, or outbuilding will do fine.

Anyone in the community with hosting suggestions, ideas or questions should call the Kusa Seed organization at 805-646-0772 or e-mail: info@ancientcerealgrains.org

The Ojai Valley Green Coalition has chosen a new executive director, Tim Nafziger, following the resignation of Russell Sydney, who served in the post for a year and a half. Nafziger plans to serve for six to nine months in an interim role to help the organization find a long term executive director.

“We appreciate Russell’s service over the last 18 months to the work of the Coalition,” said Ched Myers, a long-time member of the Board of Directors. “He has worked hard during a challenging transition period, and helped open up a new chapter for our mission. As our Interim E.D., Tim Nafziger brings to our circle activist energy, organizational skills and management experience, and the passion and perspective of the next generation. The Board sincerely thanks Russell, and looks forward to partnering with Tim to deepen and broaden the work of the OVGC.”

Tim Nafziger has been a reservist and organizer for years for the Christian Peacemaker Teams that work in small teams to reduce harm in conflict zones around the world, including Iraq. He spent 6 years on staff with the organization as outreach coordinator and then as assistant director. He identifies as a Mennonite, and has been active as an organizer in the Carnival de Resistance, a traveling arts carnival and ceremonial theater dramatizing themes of ecological justice and radical theology. He also is a leader with Showing Up for Racial Justice Ventura County, or SURJ VC, a local chapter of a national group that does education and advocacy for racial justice He runs a web design company called Congruity Works that helps nonprofits with their web strategy.

“I look forward to working with the Board of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition,” said Nafziger. “We are fortunate in the Ojai Valley to live in an extremely charismatic watershed, and I am eager to bring new voices into the ecological conversation in this valley.”

For over ten years the Green Coalition has spearheaded recycling, green living, water conservation, electric vehicles, and other forms of conservation in the Ojai Valley, most recently helping sponsor a showing of “The Cat That Changed America,” about the effort to build the world’s largest wildlife crossing to save the mountain lions of Ventura County.

“It has been one of my goals to build the Board’s capacity to take on the task of running the Coalition,” said outgoing director Sydney. “This is the perfect time for me to step back from a very public role that was thrust upon me. I am delighted that this transition is happening.”

Betsy VanLeit, who joined the Ojai Valley Green Coalition’s Board this August, brings years of experience in administration of different sorts, from working in health issues (while teaching at the University of New Mexico, and administering federal grants for underserved people in the state) and the environment (while working for the US Forest Service, in earlier years in Oregon).

Betsy is eager to dive in and help the Coalition, and thinks tentative plans to revive the demonstration garden near City Hall, and manage it as a water-wise garden and as a community garden, make a lot of sense, both for the City and for the Coalition.

“I would love for us to become the leaders of that effort, to do something tangible for people and to bring people together,” she said. “I think we need to be bringing people together around questions of sustainability and local food, and this garden was the specific piece that made me want to roll up my sleeves and help to create something exciting here.”

Betsy retired from academia and came to Ojai in part to be closer to her parents, but has already been busy volunteering not just with the Coalition, but with Food Forward and the Land Conservancy. She thinks the town especially needs to pay attention to water and how to keep it on the land, after being certified in permaculture techniques.

“I think affordable housing and water are at the heart of the things that Ojai needs to grapple with right now,” she said. “I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I do think the Green Coalition could help bring people together, and have the kind of conversations that could allow us to do things differently.”

Betsy stressed her eagerness to help, as well as her lengthy experience on one of the largest and most successful of food co-ops in the country, La Montanita in Albuquerque.

“There just seem to be a lot of wonderful and very caring people here, paying attention and trying to do good work and make it a better community,” she said. “And lots of people in spiritual practice as well. As a Buddhist practioner I like that connection to place and a certain sense of sacredness about life. In a lot of ways it feels very special to me, and I must say the farmer’s market is awesome. In Albuquerque we had a farmer’s market, but it began in May and ended in October, so to see the abundance of foods here week after week is quite amazing!”

July 24, 2017

In the hour-long documentary film “The Cat That Changed America,” wildlife biologist Beth Pratt-Bergstrom compares the bold young mountain lion, P-22, who risked his life crossing freeways to take up residence in Griffith Park to another iconic American star: James Dean.

The new EV models like the Chevy Bolt featured last month are already providing a better value for your money than ever before. This is due in part to advancements in technology and to the volume of sales that brings the price down. It is also due to the strong incentive programs listed below that may never be better than they are right now through the end of the year.

In 2012, the Green Coalition helped sponsor a weekend-long community conversation at Meditation Mount on “ecotourism,” featuring Supervisor Steve Bennett and Assemblyman Das Williams. Among the dozens of Ojai leaders who spoke was Caryn Bosson, former Coalition board member, Scott Eicher, of the Chamber of Commerce, Mike Weaver, past president of Rotary, and Greg Gamble, of the Land Conservancy.

November 4, 2015

Did you know our local trash and recycling hauler, E.J. Harrison & Sons, is celebrating its 50th year of servicing the Ojai Valley this month? The locally based company was founded in 1932 and is one of the oldest and largest privately owned collection businesses in the U.S. - serving over 90,000 customers. Maybe it’s their company motto, "Service is Everything" that has ensured their success and longevity. Or maybe the fact that it’s still a family run business with Ralph Harrison as President, and his brothers Jim and Myron serving as Vice Presidents.

October 15, 2015

Ojai Valley Green Coalition business member Kerry Miller and his family moved to Ojai in1999. Since then he has used his considerable talents to establish his successful business, Kerry Miller Designer/Builder, Inc. Talents local theatre owner Khaled Alawar sought out when the historic Ojai Playhouse was damaged by a broken water main.

Raised in Texas, Kerry came to us from New Mexico where he attended University of New Mexico, receiving his BUS in sculpture. “Some of the other classes that I took there were solar energy, architecture, light and air pollution,” said Kerry, who enjoyed the woodworking skills that he used in the sculpture. “So after graduating I went into cabinetmaking.”

It was his artistic woodworking skills creating one-of-a-kind doors that drew the attention of a Corrales, New Mexico adobe home builder who hired him in 1980. Kerry earned his own contractor’s license a year later. Next he founded his own construction company specializing in custom doors, gates, fireplace mantles, cabinets, furniture, windows, stained, beveled and etched glass for homes and businesses in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area.

September 4, 2015

OVGC member Michelle Dohrn helped found the Ojai Food Co-op in 2012. Michelle says the idea “sprouted” while she was picking potatoes on a local organic farm with her young daughter. Engaged in the physical act of harvesting those potatoes, she realized she had something incredibly valuable in her hands, a direct relationship with a farmer. She and her daughter were lucky enough to see where their food comes from and experience the work it takes to grow their food. “It so deeply touched me that I thought ‘why don't more people have access to this type of local organic fresh food?’" According to Andy Warhol, ‘the grocery cart is the most powerful tool for social change.’

August 3, 2015

Severo Lara, current City of Ojai Mayor and co-owner of JL & Sons Landscaping, is a lifelong resident and father of two. He shares the goals of most small business owners in Ojai - making a living in the small town he loves.

July 5, 2015

During our hot Ojai summers most people either try to cut down on outside obligations or take a vacation. Not Heather Mohan-Gibbons. She’s already busy gathering information and making plans as the new garden manager of the Valley of the Moon Community Garden. The Garden, located at 370 Baldwin Road, uses sustainable gardening practices to provide two types of activities for Valley residents. The Garden offers a traditional community garden portion for individual gardeners, and a space where community members grow food to donate to the Help of Ojai Senior Food Program. At one time the garden was also a hands-on learning site for Ventura County Master Gardener Trainees.

June 2, 2015

It's time for another Business Member shout out, this time to Kathy Nolan, owner of Studio Landscape. Kathy Nolan was an early supporter and director/president of the OVGC. Now it is our turn to thank her for being an OVGC business member.

As the Sierra Club so eloquently put it: ‘… rooftop solar is safe and long lasting, with zero emissions and a low water footprint. No one ever had an asthma attack because of a solar panel, nor have we ever heard of a catastrophic solar-power spill threatening fish and wildlife.’

April 6, 2015

Announcing the launch of “Solarize Ojai,” a three-month long group purchasing program designed to make going solar easier and more affordable for Ojai Valley homeowners. Our partner, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) helps guide homeowners through the entire process as an unbiased expert resource – making it as easy as possible for everyone to go solar.

Announcing the launch of “Solarize Ojai,” a three-month long group purchasing program designed to make going solar easier and more affordable for Ojai Valley homeowners. Our partner, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) helps guide homeowners through the entire process as an unbiased expert resource – making it as easy as possible for everyone to go solar.

November 5, 2014

It has been over 40 years since President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act making hemp illegal, yet industrial hemp has no drug value. The film Bringing it Home is packed with information that will leave you surprised and well informed about the often misunderstood topic of industrial hemp.

July 13, 2014

As our loyal readers know, the city of Ojai adopted an updated exterior light ordinance in August 2013, and the Coalition has been helping the city with outreach to residents. Recently, the focus has turned to businesses.

July 11, 2014

This month we’re honoring a longtime activist in Ojai’s local food movement, Dulanie Ellis. Dulanie shares, “my passion for food and agriculture developed as a result of moving to Ventura County and falling in love with the farmland. I realized if we weren’t careful and if we didn’t protect it, we would lose this rural quality of life.”

March 4, 2014

Editor's note: Coalition executive director, Deborah Pendrey, has accepted an invitation to sit on a panel as part of a full afternoon of discourse on saving water and staying in community. The event takes place at The Ojai Retreat on Sunday, March 9, 1:30 to 5 p.m. Reservations are required. Let us not be fooled back into complacency with the recent fabulous (but not nearly enough) rain event. A new way of life and course must be set – read on.

January 8, 2014

What does local jobs development and ‘zero waste’ have in common? A positive impact on the Ojai Valley and beyond. As explained in Wikipedia “Zero waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. No trash is sent to landfills and incinerators. The process recommended is one similar to the way that resources are reused in nature.”

The Coalition will hold its 6th annual e-waste recycling event with partners - Ojai Valley Directory, Ojai Community Bank, Harrison Industries, and E-Recycling of California. This VERY popular community service event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine Saturday, January 11, 2014 in the Ojai Community Bank’s parking lot located at 402 W. Ojai Ave. The event is open to all Ojai Valley residents and businesses. We’ll again have yummy oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies donated by Trader Joe’s to make the line seem shorter.

December 1, 2013

“Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.” ~James Russell Lowell

When I think of all that is right with the world – an important practice of feeding my hope – at the top of the list must be libraries. What better long-lived example of the love of wisdom mixed up with the radically practical notion that a whole community can share a store of resources, and with extremely little fuss? And so, eager to get on that particular bandwagon of sharing information, nurturing life-long learning and, by the way, using our material resources wisely, we proudly announce that the Coalition lending library is now up and running.